UNIVERSITI KUALA LUMPUR

MALAYSIA FRANCE INSTITUTE

MECHANICAL ENGINEERING SECTION

Laboratory Experiment Sheet

NOISE & VIBRATION

NOISE MEASUREMENT

1. OBJECTIVE

1.1 The students are required to find a noisy environment in UNIKL MFI and conduct a
noise measurement of that place. Initial measurement must be more than 75db(A)
1.2 Students are required to understand the principle of a noise and sound level and gain
their practices on operating the sound level machine (SLM) to achieve the required noise
measurement in terms of decibel

2. INTRODUCTION

There are three basic elements in any noise control system, as illustrated in Figure 1:
1. The source of the sound
2. The path through which the sound travels
3. The receiver of the sound (Faulkner, 1976)

Figure 1: Noise Source, Path and Receiver

Thus it is essential to study and implement the noise control i.e controlling noise at source, path
or receiver. While modifications at the source of sound are usually considered to be the best
solution for a noise control problem, modifying the sound path through which the noise is
propagated is often used when modification of the noise source is not possible, not practical, or
not economically feasible and there is a limited amount of modification that can be done for the
person’s ear as the receiver of the sound.
3. THEORY

1.1 Absorption Of Sound

All absorbers operate in fundamentally the same way. Sound is the vibratory energy of air
particles, and by using absorbers, the vibratory energy can be dissipated in the form of heat.
Thus, sound energy is reduced. The amount of heat generated from sound absorption is
minuscule. As a sound wave travels through air, there is first a small heat loss E from air
absorption that is appreciable only at higher audio frequencies. When the sound wave hits a
wall, there is a reflected component A returned to the air from the surface of the acoustical
material shown in figure 2.

Figure 2: A sound ray impinging on an acoustical material on a masonry wall undergoes

reflection from three different surfaces and absorption in the air and two different materials, with
different degrees of refraction at each interface

The sound absorption A provided by a particular area of material is obtained by multiplying its
absorption coefficient by the surface area of the material exposed to sound. Therefore:

A = Sα

where A = absorption units, sabins or metric sabins

S = surface area, sq ft or sq m
α = absorption coefficient
 1.2 Enclosures and Barriers

For a small acoustic enclosure , enclosure acts to reduce the acoustic power radiated from the
system, as shown in figure 3. If the acoustic power radiated from the enclosure is denoted by
Wout, the insertion loss (IL) for the system is defined by the following expression:
𝑊
IL(Insertion Loss) = 10𝐿𝑜𝑔10 (𝑊 ) = 𝐿𝑤 _ 𝐿𝑤.𝑜𝑢𝑡
𝑜𝑢𝑡

Figure 3: Small Acoustic Enclosure

Acoustic barriers are commonly used for the control of noise in outdoor applications, such as
reduction of highway noise to the surrounding areas, reduction of noise from transformer
stations, and reduction of noise from construction equipment. Barriers are also used to reduce
noise in indoor applications, such as in open-plan offices and schools and for machines that
cannot be totally enclosed.

The quantity N is the Fresnel number, which is the ratio of the difference between the direct path
length d and the path length over the barrier to one half of the wavelength of the sound λ as
shown in figure 4:

2 2𝑓
N = 𝜆 (A + B - d) = (A + B – d)
𝑐

Figure 4: Barrier Dimension

Analysis and discussion

1. Describe the procedure of the noise measurement of this experiment.

2. What noise measurement parameters are being used for this experiment?
3. What are the results obtain? Analyze the results and give your

Endorsed by :
Technical Unit Leader HOS/ PC
Sign & Stamp 23 september 2016 Sign & Stamp 23 september 2016